I remember when I first saw Bill Atkinson's Hypercard back in 1988, when it came bundled with my MacSE. I was 15 and it opened a world of possibilities for me as far as creating something fast and functional. True, Hypercard was not something that made much of an impact on the world at that time...
It was a few years before we saw a derivative of the human-computer interaction present in Hypercard come out that changed the world in the form of NCSA Mosaic. I'm guessing Scoble was moved to tears because he feels the seeds of something great is going to be released on March 3 in that it will open up a world of possibilities for some other group or individual to take the possibilities to a higher level (in much the same way Mosaic took the concepts of Hypercard to the next level). I highly doubt we are going to benefit immediately from whatever we see.
I also think Scoble has hit upon a great point: today's overwhelmingly profit driven model for creating software sometimes misses the beauty in creating something for the pure joy of creation (probably an ironic statement given the fact that this is a VC-based message board). Part of me is saying this because one of the projects I'm working on frequently hits the question: "It's a nice idea but how is it going to make money?" (so I suppose my personal biases are showing through here in this remark).
Hypercard was my first exposure to a Mac and to programming. I remember thinking programming can be fun!
I remember staying up to 4am with my college roommate, the night we found installed NCSA Mosaic for the first time. Of course, we regret not becoming wealthy by creating a free email service or whatever (it was wide open) but ce la vie.
Good point. Scoble informs us that this project is beautiful for the same reason a scientific paper is beautiful, yet he cites the for-profit Netscape as opposed to the innovation that was the "father" of Netscape... or perhaps he just got the two mixed up - I'm willing to give him the benefit of doubt on this.
Have you ever known, or heard of, anyone who has cried in wonderment at a demo? Even as an exaggerated emotion signifier, that expression is uggh. Scobleizer is the anti-lolchrist. He just inspired me to make that word up.
Next Media's research focus spans the linear and interactive media spectrum from television, broadband, and gaming to combinations of traditional media forms or emerging media forms too new to have a name. The group partners with product groups within Microsoft and select outside content partners such as museums, and public broadcasting to develop conceptual and working prototypes which best demonstrate the functionality or vision for media that can anchor new businesses, services and consumer experiences.
(Thus my guess is a fullscreen handheld device with gesture input that runs Outlook, IE and Excel ;-) (but photosynth does seen quite cool)
I think they are releasing something new like 'online/offline' (think Google gears) for their flash alternative silver light. The problem is having something that users must download.
